The late composer/guitarist Frank Zappa's role as a
spiritual godfather of punk has been largely obscured by
the genre-vaulting scope of his voluminous output. His
predilection for uber-fusion, avant-garde classicism,
pornographic fandangos and what he called "jazz from hell"
helped make the very mention of Zappa's name anathema to
large segments of the rock audience. Nonetheless, Zappa,
who died of cancer in 1993, was a punk of the first order,
and a singularly nasty one at that. Dragging highbrow
musical concepts through the gutter (and vice versa), Zappa
filled his oeuvre with scathing satire, puerile scatology,
annoying noise and enough general misanthropy to make John
Lydon seem like a choirboy.

The Baltimore-born, California-bred autocrat's entire
catalogue of officially released albums (except for the
currently unavailable 200 Motels movie soundtrack)
was reissued in a massive 1995 undertaking after years of
sporadic availability. With many albums baited with bonus
tracks and other goodies, they constitute an impressive
argument for the man's generally acknowledged (though
rarely investigated) reputation as the quintessential
musical maverick/genius of his era. Parsing Zappa's
vaunted "conceptual continuity" (the arcane system of cross-
references that links his albums) is daunting even for
adepts, but diving into his catalogue is invariably a true
listening adventure. His subversive influence can still be
felt throughout the underground music scene; everything
from the Butthole Surfers' jeering burlesques to Steve
Albini's uncompromising iconoclasm is to some extent in
debt to Zappa's original aesthetic. He also presaged the
indie label boom, forming his own record companies years
before the DIY aesthetic came into vogue.

The early Mothers of Invention albums  Freak
Out!, Absolutely Free and We're Only in It
for the Money  form the triad that cemented
Zappa's reputation as the ultimate freak, an outsider
repulsed by both the straight world and the burgeoning
hippie movement. Mixing '50/'60s R&B sendups with crude
attempts at jazz-rock fusion and elaborate (for the time)
rock operettas (e.g., Absolutely Free's "Brown Shoes
Don't Make It"), the Mothers  signed to a jazz label
 posited themselves as a highly individual
alternative at a time when such rebellion earned no credit
in the straight world. Looking back, it's impossible to
overestimate just how devastating the anti-hippie jabs
("Flower Punk," "Who Needs the Peace Corps?") of We're
Only in It for the Money must have been to nouveau
longhairs.

Zappa's first "solo" effort, Lumpy Gravy
(originally conceived as a second disc to be paired with
We're Only in It for the Money and ultimately issued
on a single CD with it), is a spotty combination of
nonsensical dialogue and ambitious orchestral maneuvers in
the vein of classical experimentalist (and Zappa icon)
Edgard Varèse. Cruising With Ruben & the
Jets, a collection of doo-wop/R&B pastiches, comes
off as both sincere and sardonic, a snotty homage to the
music of Zappa's youth.

The double-LP Uncle Meat, identified as "most of
the music from the Mothers' movie of the same name which we
haven't got enough money to finish yet" (the film was
completed years later and released on video), finds Zappa
coming into his own as a composer and the Mothers maturing
as improvisers, particularly on the free-form workouts of
the six-part "King Kong" suite that fills most of the
second disc. The mostly instrumental Burnt Weeny
Sandwich is even better, and includes the panoramic,
nineteen-minute "Little House I Used to Live In," complete
with a high-flying violin solo by Don "Sugar Cane"
Harris.

By almost any yardstick, Hot Rats, Zappa's second
solo album, is a masterpiece. With sparkling melodies and
stellar musicianship, it's every bit the "movie for your
ears" that Zappa envisioned. Opening with the lush "Peaches
en Regalia," a staple of Zappa's live set, Hot Rats
also includes "Willie the Pimp," notable for both its
inclusion of an ace Captain Beefheart vocal and Zappa's
first extended guitar solo. The smokin' sax and violin
workouts on "The Gumbo Variations" still sound up-to-the-
minute.

Weasels Ripped My Flesh, a fascinating hodgepodge
of live and studio recordings, represents the last gasp of
the Mothers' '60s lineup; faux free-jazz numbers such
as "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue" indicate just how
far outside the mainstream the band was operating. With a
rocking electric violin-drenched version of Little
Richard's "Directly From My Heart to You" sitting alongside
such ineffable weirdness as "Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" and "My Guitar Wants to Kill
Your Mama," Weasels Ripped My Flesh is a truly
distinctive last will and testament for the group.
(Historical footnote: Mothers Lowell George and Roy Estrada
went on to form Little Feat, while other members of the
group later became the ill-fated Grandmothers.)

Along with the rest of a mostly new batch of Mothers-to-
be, ex-Turtles Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (the vocalists
dubbed themselves the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie) made
their debut on Zappa's solo Chunga's Revenge.
Concurrent with their arrival came a nose-dive into the
crass sexual humor of 200 Motels, Fillmore East
 June 1971 and Just Another Band From
LA.

Following the demise of the Flo and Eddie-period
Mothers, Zappa began a tradition of hiring top-shelf
musicians  sometimes identified as Mothers, sometimes
not  to play his increasingly complex music. (He
retired the Mothers' name for good in 1976.)
Waka/Jawaka, conceived as a sequel to Hot
Rats, features trumpeter Sal Marquez on "Big Swifty,"
an impressive Miles Davis parody/homage. The Grand
Wazoo, however, ranks as the superior Hot Rats'
follow-up, with a battery of more than 20 musicians and
vocalists contributing to this oft-overlooked fusion
masterpiece.

Though heavy on mean-spirited sex songs, Over-nite
Sensation includes the memorable "Montana," a silly-but-
enjoyable ditty about a "dental floss tycoon" (with
uncredited backing vocals by Tina Turner and the Ikettes!).
Apostrophe ('), the title track of which features
Jack Bruce on bass, yielded Zappa's first "hit"
single, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow." The live two-disc
Roxy & Elsewhere finds Zappa in top form as both
ringleader and conductor, shepherding the Mothers though
mind-spinningly complex number like "Be-Bop Tango (of the
Old Jazzmen's Church)."

One Size Fits All continues in the vein of
Over-nite Sensation, albeit with less vulgarity. The
mostly live-in-Austin Bongo Fury reunites Zappa with
his old crony Captain Beefheart (whose Trout Mask
Replica Zappa produced); Beefheart's psycho-blues
vocalizing and dada poesy  and the inclusion of the
catchy "Muffin Man"  help make it one of Zappa's most
enjoyable efforts.

Zoot Allures is a fairly straightforward (for
Zappa) rock jam album, with Beefheart adding harmonica
to "Find Her Finer." Zappa then ran into a conflict with
his record label; withdrawing four new albums he had
created  Zappa in New York, Studio Tan,
Orchestral Favorites and another sequel to Hot
Rats  Zappa designed an ambitious multi-disc set
from them and deemed it Läther. That didn't
come out either (until 1996), but the individual albums
did. Zappa in New York is live from '76, Studio
Tan is something of a grab-bag and Sleep Dirt
consists of instrumentals subsequently augmented with
vocals. Sheik Yerbouti contains both the disco
parody "Dancin' Fool" (a turntable hit) and the
notorious "Jewish Princess," which drew the wrath of the
Anti-Defamation League.

Orchestral Favorites is a mostly instrumental
effort that pairs a 37-piece orchestra with a rock combo,
offering a taste of the full-fledged classical recordings
Zappa would essay in the '80s. Joe's Garage Act I, a
concept album about a hapless rock band, features the
likable title track and the hilarious "Why Does It Hurt
When I Pee?" (a tragically ironic title for a man who would
ultimately die of prostate cancer). The sprawling Joe's
Garage Acts II & III offers "Catholic Girls" as a
sort of follow-up to "Jewish Princess." (All three albums
were later consolidated into a double CD.)

The '80s saw Zappa's workaholism in full bloom; some
years he spewed forth as many as four new albums. With the
formation of the Barking Pumpkin label, he was able to
operate entirely outside the realm of the majors, and he
reveled in the total artistic freedom he had always sought.
Tinseltown Rebellion is a live album (with the
exception of the studio single "Fine Girl") that features a
young Steve Vai on rhythm guitar. The title track finds
Zappa weighing in (with predictable disdain) on the subject
of punk.

The short, snappy songs that make up You Are What You
Is  which Zappa considered to be a sequel to
Joe's Garage  operate much like a long suite;
there are several gems here, notably the country-western
parody "Harder Than Your Husband" and the merciless poseur
denunciation of "Mudd Club."

While Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning
Witch is one of Zappa's lesser albums, it contains his
biggest hit, "Valley Girl," in which his then-fourteen-year-
old daughter Moon Unit does a delicious  and mass
culture-influencing  demonstration of Southern
California speech pathology. The Man From Utopia
(which credits Steve Vai with "impossible guitar parts")
offers a glib sampling of Zappa's perennial obsessions,
containing more porno pap ("The Jazz Discharge Party
Hats"), doo-wop parodies ("Luigi & the Wise Guys") and
tinker toy instrumentals ("Moggio"), every song clocking in
at under five minutes.

There is little to recommend Baby Snakes, a movie
soundtrack consisting primarily of rehashed versions of old
songs ("Disco Boy," "Dinah-Moe Humm"). The next two albums
put Zappa back on classical terrain: London Symphony
Orchestra (and its 1987 sequel, both now available in a
two-disc package) turns the 102-piece LSO, conducted by
Kent Nagano, loose on Zappa's slippery compositions, while
The Perfect Stranger puts Pierre Boulez in the
conductor's seat with similar results. Those who truly
can't hack modern classical music are advised to avoid
these albums, as well as the later Francesco
Zappa.

Them or Us begins with a straightforward cover of
the Channels' 1956 single "The Closer You Are" and ends
with a walloping rendition of the Allman Brothers
Band's "Whipping Post," sandwiching a hefty helping of the
usual mischief between those two poles. One of Zappa's
sons, Dweezil, contributes guitar to several tracks,
including the Vai showcase, "Stevie's Spanking."

The obnoxious Thing-Fish (originally a three-
record set, now on two CDs) may well be brilliant, but the
album's insufferable mixture of Amos & Andy-
inspired double-talk (courtesy of vocalist Ike Willis) and
sexual fetishism renders it nearly impenetrable to all but
hardcore Zappaphiles. For masochists only.

Snippets of Zappa's testimony before the PMRC-inspired
1985 Senate hearings on record-rating can be heard on "Porn
Wars," a twelve-minute musical collage from the otherwise
unremarkable Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of
Prevention. Does Humor Belong in Music?, yet
another live album (from 1984), was originally released
only in the United Kingdom.

The claustrophobic-sounding, all-instrumental Jazz
From Hell was composed and played entirely on
Synclavier sampling synthesizer and holds the distinction
of being Zappa's only Grammy-winning album.

Documenting the abortive 1988 tour of Zappa's horn-
enhanced big band, the next three albums  Broadway
the Hard Way, The Best Band You Never Heard in Your
Life and Make a Jazz Noise Here  are
brashly inventive affairs brimming with humor, political
satire and amazing chops. The first features almost all-new
material, including brutal excoriations of Elvis Presley
("Elvis Has Just Left the Building"), Jesse Jackson
("Rhymin' Man") and Michael Jackson ("Why Don't You Like
Me?"). Best Band reprises old favorites ("Cosmik
Debris," "Zomby Woof") and includes goofy covers of "Purple
Haze" and "Sunshine of Your Love," culminating with an
infamous nine-minute version of "Stairway to Heaven" that
serves notice Zappa's sense of humor remains as perverse as
ever. Make a Jazz Noise Here highlights the band's
tightly controlled approach to improvisation on tracks like
the sprawling "When Yuppies Go to Hell" and a
retooled "King Kong."

Both Playground Psychotics and Ahead of Their
Time are, if not essential, of definite archival
interest. The two-CD former collects live music and
backstage banter from the comedic Flo and Eddie-period
Mothers and includes several tracks recorded in 1971 with
John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Fillmore East. Ahead of
Their Time is a 1968 recording of the Mothers live at
London's Royal Festival Hall, on which the group is heard
working out material that would later appear on Uncle
Meat, Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped
My Flesh.

The challenging Civilization Phase III is a
sprawling mess that mixes smut and Synclavier sounds in
equal measure.

The six double-CDs that constitute the all-live You
Can't Do That on Stage Anymore series draw material in
chronological order from all stages of Zappa's career,
offering a kaleidoscopic view of the great man's many
musical incarnations. True diehards may want to also
investigate the Beat the Boots series (the only
releases on the Foo-eee/Rhino consortium), fifteen
unauthorized concert albums that Zappa came across and co-
opted with his own authorized releases in 1991 and 1992. As
might be expected, the albums  also repackaged as two
vinyl and cassette boxes  boast bootleg quality
sound, tape hiss and all.

The Yellow Shark, another classical effort, was
recorded live by Frankfurt's Ensemble Modern under Zappa's
direction and production and released posthumously. Made
without the composer's participation, Zappa's Universe is a
live recording of his music performed in late 1991 as a
tribute by various associates, relatives and fans.

Strictly Commercial, a choice nineteen-song
selection of Zappa's most accessible material, makes a
dandy primer for the uninitiated, covering as it does a
gamut of eras, from Hot Rats' "Peaches en Regalia"
and Apostrophe's "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow"
through "Dancin' Fool," "Valley Girl" and Them or
Us' "Be in My Video."

Personally compiled by Zappa near the end of his life,
The Lost Episodes is a richly annotated collection
of 30 rare studio recordings, outtakes and other
curiosities from the great man's long and windy career. A
treasure trove for devoted fans, it includes several
Zappa/Beefheart collaborations ("Lost in a Whirlpool" dates
from the late '50s). Among the other goodies: "Lil' Clanton
Shuffle," a swell jam originally intended for inclusion on
Hot Rats, a twelve-minute "Sharleena" sung by Sugar
Cane Harris and the original mix of the controversial 1980
single "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted." In the words of Edgard
Varèse, the present day composer refuses to die.